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GERMANY'S DEBT TO IRELAND. 



FOR REFERENCES 

The Reader may Consult the Following Works : 

Greith, Carl Johann. — Geschickte der alt-irischen Kirche. 
Freiburg : B. Herder, 1S67. 

Montalembert, Count de. — The Monks of the West. London: 
William Blackwood & Sons, 1868. 

Wetzer & Welte. — Kirchen-Lexicon. Freiburg: B. Herder. 
Moran, Cardinal. — Essays on the Early Irish Church. Dublin : 
James Duffy, 1864. 

Hefele, Dr. C. J. — Geschichte der Einfuhrung des Christen- 
thums. Tubingen, 1837. 

Hergenrbther, Cardinal. — Handbuch der Kirchenge- 
schichte. Freiburg : B. Herder. 

Conyngham, D. P. — Lives of the Irish Saints. New York : 
Sadlier. 

Bolland, Acta Sanctorum. 

Pertz. Monumenta Germ, historica. 



Composition by 

SNOW & FARNHAM. 

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GERMANY'S 



DEBT TO IRELAND 



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FR. PUSTET, 
Printer to the Holy See and the S. Congregation of Rites. 

PR PUSTET & CO., 

IfcTe-w "2"orls <Sc Ciaa.crnaa.a.ti- 
1889. 




BX4G5 C T 



Copyright 1889, by E. Steinback. 



CHAPTER I 



MISSIONARY ZEAL OF IRISH MONKS. 

0URING the coming month of July (1889), 
the city and Diocese of Wiirzburg will cele- 
brate with solemn rites and splendid festivi- 
ties the twelfth centenary of the introduction of 
Christianity into Franconia by Irish Missionaries 
and Martyrs. The attention of the whole Christian 
world will again turn towards the "Isle of Saints," 
and gratefully recall the blessings which Erin, in her 
days of glory, bestowed on Continental Europe. 
Catholic Germany, in particular, will resound with 
the praises of those Saints and Apostles, who evan- 
gelized and civilized her barbarian ancestors, 
Germans, who are by nature grateful, have always 
acknowledged their religious and literary indebted- 
ness to Ireland. One thousand years -ago, the 
learned Monk, Ermenrich Von Reichenau, remarked 
to the Abbot of St. Gall : " How could we ever forget 
the Isle of Erin, from whence the Sun of faith, the 
radiance of so great a light has risen for us." 

A thousand years of strange and sad changes have 
not cooled the warmth of gratitude in German hearts 
towards Ireland. 



Germany's debt to Ireland, 



In the month of April, 1844, the leaders of Catho- 
lic Germany presented an address to the Irish Lib- 
erator, Daniel O'Connell, in which they said : 

"It would, indeed, be divesting ourselves [the 
people of Germany] of all human sentiments, if we 
were not to entertain the deepest and sincerest sym- 
pathy for the ill-treated people of your isle, sighing 
under the yoke, and still reeking from the streams 
of shed blood. But want of sympathy on our part 
would, moreover, involve the blackest ingratitude. 
We never can forget to look upon your beloved coun- 
try as our mother in religion , that already , at the 
remotest periods of the Christian era, commiserated 
our people, and readily sent forth Iter spiritual sons 
to rescue our pagan ancestors from idolatry, at the 
sacrifice of her own property and blood, and to entail 
upon them the blessings of the Christian faith. 
They thus have made us their, and their nation's, 
spiritual children, and laid up a store of merits for 
the people of Ireland, which only base indifference 
and want of all good feeling could be unmindful of, 
and which just now presents itself the more vividly 
to our memory, the more we behold the native land 
of those faithful apostles delivered over to undeserved 
misfortune by injustice." 

When Germany sat in darkness and in the shad- 
ows of death, "Ireland was the 'seat of a flourish- 
ing Church/ abounding in the fruits of sanctity, 
learning and zeal." The old world with its wealth 
and wisdom was passing from the face of the earth, 
when that blessed Island in North had become "the 



GERMANY S DEBT TO IRELAND. 5 

store-house of the past and the birth-place of the 
future." The Religion which Patrick brought had 
taken a firm hold of the land and entered into the 
flesh and blood of the people so as to become their 
very life. 

"For several centuries," says Father Thebeand, 
"after St. Patrick the island was the 'Isle of Saints/ 
a place midway between heaven and earth, where 
angels and saints of heaven came to dwell with mere 
mortals." 

We recall the classic words of Dr. Doellinger re- 
garding the period in which Ireland sent her heroic 
sons to evangelize the pagan nations of the Continent : 
" During the 6th and 7th centuries the Church of 
Ireland stood in the full beauty of its bloom. The 
spirit of the Gospel operated amongst the people 
with a vigorous and vivifying power ; troops of holy 
men, from the highest to the lowest ranks of Society, 
obeyed the counsel of Christ, and forsook all things, 
that they might follow him. There was not a coun- 
try of the world, during the period, which could 
boast of pious foundations or of religious communi- 
ties equal to those that adorned this far distant 
island. Among the Irish, the doctrines of the 
Christian religion were preserved pure and entire, 
the names of heresy or of schism were not known 
to them ; and in the Bishop of Rome they acknowl- 
edged and venerated the Supreme Head of the 
Church on earth, and continued with him, and 
through him with the whole Church, in a never in- 
terrupted communion. The schools in the Irish 



6 Germany's debt to Ireland. 

cloisters were at this time the most celebrated in all 
the West. Whilst almost the whole of Europe was 
desolated by war, peaceful Ireland, free from the 
invasions of external foes, opened to the lovers of 
learning and piety a welcome asylum. The strangers, 
who visited the island, not only from the neighbor- 
ing shores of Britain, but also from the most remote 
nations of the Continent, received from the Irish peo- 
ple the most hospitable reception, gratuitous enter- 
tainment, free instruction, and even the books that 
were necessary for their studies. Thus in the year 
536, in the time of St. Senanus, there arrived at 
Cork, from the Continent, fifteen monks, who were 
led thither by their desire to perfect themselves in 
the practices of an ascetic life under Irish directors, 
and to study the Sacred Scriptures in the school es- 
tablished near that city. At a later period, after 
the year 650, the Anglo-Saxons, in particular, passed 
over to Ireland in great numbers for the same lauda- 
ble purposes. On the other hand, many holy and 
learned Irishmen left their own country to proclaim 
the faith, to establish or to reform monasteries in 
distant lands, and thus to become the benefactors of 
almost every nation in Europe." 

Charity is diffusive ; its nature is to expand and 
to communicate itself to others. Animated with 
the purest zeal for the conversion of souls ; burning 
with the holiest desire of bringing the blessings of 
their faith to others, the sons of St. Patrick left their 
sweet and blessed country to go into the whole 
world and to preach the Gospel to every creature. 



GERMANY S DEBT TO IRELAND. 7 

St. Bernard, in his "Life of St. Malachy," remarks : 
"From Ireland, as from an overflowing stream, 
crowds of holy men descended on foreign countries." 
This deep-seated love of evangelizing has been 
graphically sketched by the Count de Montalembert : 
"A characteristic still more distinctive of the Irish 
monks, as of all their nation, was the imperious 
necessity of spreading themselves without, of seek- 
ing or carrying knowledge and faith afar, and of 
penetrating into the most distant regions to watch or 
combat paganism. This monastic nation, therefore, 
became the missionary nation par excellence. While 
some came to Ireland to procure religious instruc- 
tion, the Irish missionaries launched forth from this 
island. They covered the land and the seas of the 
west. Unwearied navigators, they landed on the 
most desert islands ; they overflowed the Continent 
with their successive immigrations. They saw in 
incessant visions a world known and unknown to be 
conquered for Christ." Who has not heard or read 
of St. Brendan, the Irish sailor-monk, whoso "fantas- 
tic pilgrimages into the great ocean, in search of the 
earthly Paradise, and of souls to convert" have ex- 
ercised a religious charm over the Christian imagina- 
tions for twelve centuries? The account of his 
wonderful voyages was one of the first books printed 
in the German language. "For the Irish," says 
Wallafried Strabo, "the habit to immigrate has become 
their second nature." 

Whilst the British would not cross the narrow 
span of water to bring the blessing of faith to [re- 



8 



GERMANY S DEBT TO IRELAND, 



land, the Irish, after embracing the doctrine of the 
Crucified, would traverse every sea and country to 
carry the Gospel to heathen nations.* 

Probably no other nation of the Continent owes 
so much to the missionary zeal of the Irish monks 
as Germany ; no other country has been so abund- 
antly blessed with the illustrious lives of Irish Saints 
as Germany. To-day, over one hundred and fifty 
Irishmen are invoked as patron saints in different 
parts of Germany. Among the earliest of the Irish 
missionaries whose names are held in pious remem- 
brance were Fridolin, Columbanus, Gall, Sigisbert, 
Trudpert, Kilian, Colonat, Totnan, Virgilius and 
Disibod. 



*The Irish not only penetrated the inhospitable and uncultivated parts of the 
Continent, we find them even on the shores of America as early as the eighth 
century. Grave historians admit that the Irish discovered America seven hun- 
dred years before Christopher Columbus colonized that portion of America 
now known as North and South Carolina, Georgia and East Florida. Gndlief 
Gndlaugsan, a Norse navigator, who landed here in the beginning of the 
eleventh century, found the people speaking Irish, and in the Sagas the coun- 
try is called " Ireland-it-Mikla," that is great Ireland. 



CHAPTER II. 



ST. FRIDOLIN. 

I I I HE first Irish Saint we meet on German soil is 
d I 4 Fridolin, "the traveller," the son of an Irish 
king. He was born, in all probability, within 
the life-time of St. Patrick. In his early youth, Fri- 
dolin consecrated himself to God, and renouncing all 
earthly riches, looked and sought for the treasures of 
heavenly wisdom. After long and arduous studies 
he devoted himself to the service of God in the 
priesthood. He was gifted with a wonderful power 
of sacred eloquence, and soon won the admiration 
and loving enthusiasm of the people in cities and 
towns through which he travelled, preaching the 
word of God. Soon, however, Fridolin remarked 
within himself the presence of a dangerous enemy 
of his salvation. He felt himself inclined to vain 
glory and a desire to be praised and flattered. He 
saw the remedy for his rising passion in flight. He 
courageously left his beautiful country, and passing 
over to France, entered the monastery of St. Hilary 
at Poitiers where the monks, recognizing his learn- 
ing and zeal, presently elected him their abbot. 
With the aid of King Clovis he rebuilt the church 
of St. Hilary, and there translated the relics of the 
saint. His great Patron appeared to him with the 



10 Germany's debt to Ireland. 

information that his work was not to end in France, 
but that God had destined him for another country 
ard another nation. He told him to leave his work 
at Poitiers in the hands of his two nephews, who 
had followed him from Ireland to take some of the 
relics from the church (St. Hilary's), and to go to 
Alemania where, in the midst of a large river, he? 
would find an island that the Lord had selected as> 
the term of his missionary journeys. Fridolin obeyed 
the heavenly summons and quitted the land he had 
learned to love. So intense was his veneration fot 
his Patron that on his wanderings and his searching 
after the promised island, he founded monasteries 
and churches in honor of St. Hilary. We mention 
here the Monastery of Helera on the Moselle, a 
church of St. Hilary in Lorraine, and the church of 
St. Hilary in Strassburg. Finally he discovered the 
island on the upper Rhine, now known as the island 
of Saeckingen, above Basle, at the foot of the 
Black Forest, between Baden and Switzerland. 
Fridolin's heart leaped with joy as he set foot on the 
picturesque little isle, placed like a sparkling jewel 
on the bosom of the majestic river. 

While he was seeking a suitable place for a 
chapel, the inhabitants noticing the behaviour of the 
stranger, and taking him for a spy or robber, seized 
him and after a cruel flogging, drove him from the 
isle. Fridolin returned to king Clovis from whom 
he obtained a letter granting him the isle, and threat- 
ening with capital punishment every one who would 
obstruct his taking possession of the land. 



Germany's debt to Ireland. 11 

The inhabitants received him respectfully, this 
time, and helped him to build a church, monastery, 
school and convent. Idolatry and superstition were 
soon banished forever from Saeckingen and peace 
and prosperity blessed the isle and its inhabitants. 
Fridolin died in the fame of great sanctity on March 
6th, about the year 550, and was buried in his own 
church. Among the many miracles which attested 
his spotless life and holy mission to the Alemani ; 
Ave mention the raising of a dead person to life and 
the changing of the Rhine in its course near Saec- 
kingen. Fridolin first carried the lamp of faith into 
the heathen darkness of the Black Forest. His re- 
ligious establishments became the celebrated nurser- 
ies of Christian civilization, and the monks of the 
monastery he had founded became the renowned 
teachers and religious instructors of the neighbor- 
ing districts. To the present day, Fridolin's memory 
is held in benediction by the people of the upper 
Rhine, and story and legend have twined many a 
fragrant flower around that blossoming tree which 
the hand of God thus transplanted from the garden 
of the Irish church to grace the borders of Germany's 
noblest rivers and to give shade and rest to weary 
pilgrims on their journey towards eternity. St. 
Fridolin is presumably the first child of St. Patrick 
who gazed on the river Rhine. 



CHAPTER III. 



ST. COLUMBANUS. 

GOLUMBANUS whose immortal fame outshines 
that of all his contemporaries and throws a last- 
ins: glory on the history of his time, was born of 
noble parents in the province of Leinster, in 535. His 
early education was entrusted to a learned and holy 
man, named Sinell. Columbanus was of great per- 
sonal beauty, and in consequence, w r as exposed to 
many temptations w r hich he struggled resolutely to 
overcome first by the study of the Scriptures, next 
by leaving his native land. 

He entered the cloisteral halls of Bangor where 

© 

hundreds of sainted monks served God devoutly in 
prayer, study and manual labor, under one of Ire- 
land's brightest saints and scholars, Abbot Comgall. 
Columbanus was thentw 7 enty-five years old. In the 
course of time he became a zealous monk and orna- 
ment of the monastery. But, in his calm retreat, a 
voice kept constantly ringing in his ears : " Go out 
of thine own country, and from thy father's house, 
into the land w T hich I will show thee." Despite the 
loving entreaties of Comgall to remain at Bangor, 
he persisted in his resolution to depart. At last, in 
589, Columbanus received the Abbot's consent and 
blessing, and with twelve monks went forth upon 



Germany's debt to Ireland. 13 

his mission. Before embarking at Belfast, they 
prostrated themselves for the last time on their na- 
tive soil and recommended themselves in prayer to 
to merciful guidance of God. 

After a prosperous voyage they landed in France 
where a wide field opened before the priestly zeal 
of Columbanus. He first travelled through the 
country, preaching penance to those especially who 
had been baptized Christians, but who were fast re- 
lapsing into paganism. He then took up his resi- 
dence with his companions first at the old castle of 
Annegray, then at Luxeul, in the Franche-Comte 
where they led a simple and austere life like to the 
Fathers of the Desert. Columbanus presently 
separated himself from his community and plunged 
into the forest that he might hold closer communion 
with God. Then the wild animals, as his biographer 
Jonas, informs us, would come at his call, the birds 
would playfully fly about him or confidently alight 
on his shoulders. A squirrel which knew him well 
would jump from the tree-tops and hide itself in the 
folds of his cowel. A raven became so attached to 
him that, at his order, it brought back his glove which 
it had roguishly carried away. Once he drove a 
bear from a cavern which he chose for his cell ; at 
another time, he took from the jaws of a bear a 
dead stag whose skin served to make shoes for his 
monks. 

We know from the lives of other saints that man 
intimately united in grace with God may obtain the 
privilege originally granted to our first parents to 



14 Germany's debt to ikeland. 

exercise a powerful influence and control over na- 
ture and the beasts of the earth. The blood of the 
early martyrs softened the rage of tigers and leop- 
ards. A wild bear which the day previous had de- 
voured two gladiators in the ampitheater, was let 
loose, on the same spot, against St. Andronikus, but 
the ferocious animal would not touch the saint ; it 
lay down peacefully and reverently kissed the feet 
of Andronikus. For sixty years a raven daily car- 
ried bread to the hermit, St. Paul, in the desert, and 
when he died two lions came and dug his grave. 
Need we wonder, if the wild animals became the ser- 
vants and friends of St. Columbanus, who was so 
closely united with God? 

Columbanus composed a book of rules and regu- 
lations for his monks at Luxeul. Some of his stat- 
utes appear to us rather harsh. One rule, f. i., or- 
dained that the monk should go to bed so tired as to 
fall asleep on the way, or rise before he had slept 
enough. But we should remember with Count de 
Montalembert that " it is at the cost of this excessive 
and perpetual labor that the half of Gaul and of un- 
grateful Europe has been restored to cultivation and 
to life." 

Columbanus had devoted twenty years of life in 
France to the reformation of its kings and people, 
when the wicked king, Theodoric, banished him and 
his Irish companions from the country forever. 

It had always been his ambition and inclination to 
preach the gospel to heathen nations. His persecu- 



Germany's debt to Ireland. 15 

tors enabled him to fulfill his holy desire ; he deter- 
mined to evangelize the pagan Alemani. 

With this intention he proceeded to Mentz where 
Bishop Leonisius gave him the necessary provisions 
for his journey. He ascended, with his countrymen, 
the river Rhine, and came to Lake Zurich. He took 
up his abode in Tuggen. The inhabitants were cruel 
idolaters, and worshipped, as their chief god, Woden. 
The Irish missionaries instructed them in the rudi- 
ments of the Christian religion and taught them to 
adore the one true God in three persons. 

One day Columbanus saw the natives around a 
large vessel of beer, which they were to offer in sac- 
rifice to Woden. At his approach the vessel burst 
asunder and the foaming liquid ran hissing over the 
ground. With all the impetuosity of his Irish tem- 
per he burned their pagan temples, smashed their 
gilded idols, and cast their brazen images into the 
lake. But when his companion, St. Gall, set fire to 
their sacred groves, the pagans became so enraged 
that they determined to kill the zealous monk and to 
scourge St. Columbanus. Shaking the dust from 
his feet, he pronounced a woe upon the people who 
had wilfully spurned the grace of conversion, and 
went with Gall to Arbon, a christian settlement near 
Lake Constance. The parish priest, Willimar, re- 
ceived the Irish missionaries kindlv. He first led 
them into his chapel for prayer, and gave them the 
hospitality of his house. They sat down to a Ger- 
man dinner, during which St. Columbanus ordered 
his disciple to read a passage from Holy Scripture 



16 Germany's debt to Ireland. 

and to open the hidden meaning of the Divine Word. 
St. Gall did all this with such simplicity, and yet 
with such eloquence, learning and unction, that 
Father Willimar was greatly astonished at the re- 
markable erudition of his Irish guest, and even moved 
to tears at his earnestness and sincere piety. He 
prevailed on the missionaries to stay with him for 
seven days. Willimar procured a boat which carried 
them across Lake Constance to Bregenz. Here, in 
this ruined city, they found the Church of St. Au- 
relia, once a Christian, but now a pagan temple. 
They examined the surroundings and were pleased 
with the location. And well they might be. The 
country around Lake Constance baffles all descrip- 
tion. The broad sheet of water, now fringed with 
blooming meadows and smiling vineyards, must, 
even in a less cultivated condition, have presented a 
picture of singular beauty, set off by the snowy 
mountains of Switzerland and the Tyrol in the near 
distance. Adelaide Procter opens her celebrated 
poem, f? A Legend of Bregenz," with these rosy 
lines : 

" Girt round with rugged mountains, 

The fair Lake Constance lies ; 
In her blue heart reflected, 

Shine back the starry skies. 
And, watching each white cloudlet 

Float silently and slow, 
You think a piece of heaven 

Lies on our earth below.' ' 

On the banks of this lovely lake St. Columbanus 
and his disciples built their cells, close to the church 



Germany's debt to Ireland. 17 

desecrated by idolatry and superstition. The natives 
had once been converted to the Christian faith, but 
relapsed into paganism. Columbanus made it known 
among them that he would reconsecrate the church 
to the service of God. Through curiosity the peo- 
ple came together in large crowds to see the strang- 
ers and to witness the solemn rites. Columbanus 
bade St. Gall, who spoke German fluently, preach a 
sermon to them. The eloquent Irish monk exhorted 
the people to renounce the follies of paganism and 
to return to their God and to his divine son Jesus, 
who had come into this world in order to redeem 
man and to open to him the gates of heaven. At the 
close of his discourse St. Gall tore down the idols 
from the walls of the church and flung them into the 
lake. Many were converted and confessed their sins, 
others left the church, filled with rage over the de- 
struction of their false gods. Then the ceremony 
of Reconsecration began. The account which the 
old biographer gives is most interesting to a catholic 
in the 19th century ; for the Rite is essentially the 
same as that in use on similar occasions at the present 
day in Boston or Chicago. St. Columbanus blessed 
water and with it sprinkled the walls of -the church, 
and whilst the clergy walked in procession round the 
building, singing psalms, he rededicated it to God. 
Invoking the Holy Name, he anointed the altar, 
placed relics of St. Aurelia in it, and covered the 
table of the altar with white linen and then said Mass 
on it. When the solemnity was ended, the people 
returned to their homes with great joy. 



18 Germany's debt to Ireland. 

Columbanus remained at Bregenz with his com* 
panions for three years, leading a cenobitical life. 
As the inhabitants were rather selfish, the monks 
were obliged to live on the wild birds of the forest 
and fish from the lake. They planted a garden and 
soon had vegetables for a variety. 

The Priest, before baptizing, exorcises the child 
and takes from Satan whatever power he claims over 
it. Thus, in the conversion of nations, the Church 
had to drive Satan from his unlawful possessions and 
destroy the power which he exercised over the peo- 
ple. The old historian has preserved a striking 
illustration of this truth in the following narrative : 

One night St. Gall went out to the lake to catch 
some fish for the sustenance of Columbanus and his 
disciples. As he was seated in his boat, watching 
his nets and saying his prayers, he heard the Demon 
of the neighboring mountains call for his companion 
in the depth of the lake : M Arise and help me to 
chase away those strangers who have expelled me 
from my temple, and have demolished my images 
and have won the people over to themselves." The 
Demon of the waters replied : w Behold, here is 
one of them upon the waterside whose nets I have 
tried to destroy, but I have never succeeded. Al- 
ways absorbed in prayer, he never sleeps." When 
Gall heard this, he signed himself with the sign of 
the cross and then cried out : " In the name of 
Jesus Christ, I command you to leave these regions 
without daring to injure any one." St. Gall imme- 
diately returned to the shore and notified his mas- 



Germany's debt to Ireland. 19 

ter of the occurrence. Columbanus had the bells 
rung to assemble his brethren in the church for divine 
service. And just before commencing the singing 
of psalms, they heard the furious yells and infernal 
shrieks of the demons echoing from the mountains 
as they fled in dismay like a defeated army. 

This story may appear somewhat incredible to the 
Christian of the nineteenth century ; but he must bear 
in mind that all the provinces of creation are divided 
into two kingdoms, one of light, the other of dark- 
ness. (Gcerres.) The latter is waging a continual 
war against the kingdom of light. Diabolical power 
in its struggle against light, can, with the permission 
of God, produce extraordinary phenomena, or, as 
St. Thomas puts it, "the demons can produce all 
those changes in physical substances of which they 
are capable, according to their natural qualities." 
(L, 1U,4.) 

St. Columbanus did not find at Bregenz that peace 
and solitude in which he desired to close his troubled 
life. The inhabitants grew daily colder towards him, 
and finally came to look upon him with suspicion as 
an intruder and disturber of peace. Two of his monks 
who had been falsely accused of stealing cows were 
slain in an ambuscade, and his own life was in real 
danger. " We have found a golden cup," he ex- 
claimed bitterly, "but it is full of serpents." 

In the seventy-ninth year of his age, he took his 
staff and summoned the monks for departure to 
Italy. St. Gall was laid up with a heavy fever ; he 
entreated his master to excuse him from undertaking 



20 GERMANY'S DEBT TO IRELAND* 

the journey. But Coluinbanus, suspecting that Gall 
had grown too fond of the place, and was now feign- 
ing sickness in order to remain, said to the suffering 
monk: "Since thou wilt separate thyself from me, 
I debar thee, as long as I live, from saying mass." 

Crossing the Alps, Columbanus founded in Italy 
the monastery of Bobbio, which he governed but one 
year. When he felt the approach of death, he left 
Bobbio and sought a still deeper seclusion in a cav- 
ern on the opposite shore of the Trebbia, where he 
passed his last hours in fasting and prayer. And 
thence on November 21, 615, God took unto Himself 
the great soul of Columbanus. 

Though he spent only three years of his fruitful 
life on German soil, yet he has left abundant evi- 
dence of his apostolic zeal, and the fragrance of his 
virtues still lingers around beautiful Bregenz. A 
model monk, a fiery apostle, a distinguished author 
and defender of his faith, an able poet, and above 
all, a great saint is Columbanus, of whom a writer 
says : " Wonderful was the sanctity of Columbanus. 
Taught by the Holy Spirit, he established the mo- 
nastic rule, and was the first who gave it to the Gauls. 
On earth he was distinguished for the miracles which 
God wrought through him ; and the virtues of his 
work shone forth as brightly as the stars of the firm- 
ament." 



CHAPTER IV. 



ST. GALL. 

FIRST and foremost among the disciples of the 
great Columbanus stands St. Gallus or Gall, 
whose life is so identified with his master's that 
we have given a partial account of it in relating the his- 
tory of Columbanus. Gall received his education at 
Bangor under him whom he followed as missionary to 
France and Alemania and with whom he would have 
gladly persevered to the end, had not an all-wise Provi- 
dence decreed otherwise. God permitted him to be 
separated from his father and guide and to bear the 
heavy cross of ill-deserved reproaches ; to be charged 
with faithlessness and hypocrisy by him whom he 
had loved so devotedly and served so faithfully and 
to be forbidden the heavenly joy of the daily cele- 
bration of mass. It is consoling to our human weak- 
ness to see that even saints may misunderstand each 
other. 

Sick as he was, Gall would not remain alone at 
Bregenz ; he returned to his friend at Arbon, the 
priest Willimar, to whom he related the sudden de- 
parture of Columbanus and the punishment he so un- 
justly inflicted on him. Willimar poured the oil of 
consolation into the wounded heart of Gall and 



22 Germany's debt to Ireland. 

raised his drooping spirit with the promise of every 
possible assistance. He moreover charged his two 
clerics, Maginald and Theodore, to nurse the aban- 
doned monk during his illness. Through the kind- 
ness of Willimar and the care of his clerics, St. Gall 
regained his health and strength. "O, blessed ill- 
ness," exclaims Walfried Strabo, "stronger than any 
human strength and better than health ! Like his 
divine Lord, St. Gall became sick that by the preach- 
ing of the heavenly word he might cure our souls. 
He was not enabled to undertake the journey with 
his master that he might lead us in the path of vir- 
tue and truth." 

Having completely recovered, St. Gall wished to 
retire to a solitary place. Taking for his guide a 
deacon, named Hildebold, an expert in hunting and 
fishing, he left Arbon to seek a spot where he might 
build a cell. They went into the wilderness, in the 
Swiss Alps, inhabited by bears, wolves, boars and 
venomous snakes. When evening came, they halted 
at a place where the river Steinach hollows a bed for 
itself in the rocks. Throwing their nets into the 
river they caught some fish, then prepared their 
scanty supper. After the frugal meal, Gall, desir- 
ing to be alone, went deeper into the woods, when 
his foot was caught in the brushwood and he fell. 
Hildebold ran to raise him up, but the holy man re- 
plied in w r ords of the Psalmist : "Here let me rest ; 
this place have I chosen to be my dwelling-place for- 
ever." Prostrate upon the giound he prayed for 



GERMANY'S DEBT TO IRELAND. 23 

some time. Then rising up he made a cross of two 
hazel boughs and fastening it into the earth, he at- 
tached it to a reliquary which he carried around his 
neck, and which contained relics of the Blessed Vir- 
gin, of St. Desiderius and St. Mauritius, and he thus 
prayed : "Lord Jesus Christ, Creator of the world, 
who hast redeemed the human race by the Holy 
Cross, grant that this place may serve thy glory and 
the honor of thy Blessed Mother and all the Saints." 

During the night, as Gall was praying, a bear de- 
scended from the mountains to collect the remnants 
of the supper. Gall ordered the beast to bring some 
wood for a fire. The bear obediently brought him a 
large piece of dry wood, and Gall rewarded this ser- 
vice with a loaf of bread from his wallet, but he 
commanded the bear to withdraw from the valley and 
to retire to the mountains and never to harm man or 
beast. 

Menzel says that Gall once extracted a thorn from 
the paw of a bear and the animal was so grateful 
for it that it became a faithful servant and companion 
of the Saint. The fact is that St. Gall has always 
been represented with a bear at his side, and that the 
canton of St. Gall has the figure of a bear on its 
coat of arms. 

In the morning, Hildebold went fishing for their 
breakfast. As he threw his net, he saw two demons 
in the form of women on the opposite side of the 
river. They threw stones at him, shouting : e You 
have led into this desert that wicked and zealous 



24 Germany's debt to Ireland. 

man, who has always overcome us." Gall appeared 
and banished them away by his prayer : " O, Lord 
Jesus Christ, Son of God, do thou command that 
these demons leave this place which henceforth may 
be sacred to thy holy name." Soon the demons 
were heard in the distance weeping and crying out : 
"What shall we do? Where shall we go? This 
stranger drives us not only from the dwellings of 
man, but hunts us even from the lonely desert." Gall 
consecrated the place by special prayers and a fast 
of three days. He erected an oratory and built 
cells for himself and for those who joined him. He 
also began to labor at the conversion of his heathen 
neighbors to whom he proved his heavenly mission 
by many miracles. 

Our divine Lcrd told his disciples that if they 
had a lively faith they could expect an unlimited 
co-operation of God's omnipotence : "If thou canst 
believe, all things are possible to him that believeth." 
The strong faith of Gall relied on the power of the 
Almighty, and he was not confounded. 

Duke Gunzo of Alemania having heard of the 
power of miracles given to Gall, sent a letter, be- 
seeching him to come and to heal his beautiful and 
only daughter Friedeburga who was possessed by 
an evil spirit. The Saint refused to comply with 
the wishes of Gunzo and disappeared into the moun- 
tains of Khaetia. At Grabs (Quadraves) he met 
the pious Deacon John who pressed him to stay at 
his house. His retreat was soon discovered, and 'he 
finally consented to go to the ducal castle of Ueber- 



GKRMANY'S DEBT TO IRELAND. 25 

lingen. He found Friedeburga lying in her mother's 
lap, her eyes closed, her mouth wide open, and breath- 
ing forth sulphurous odors. St. Gall knelt in fervent 
prayer, and laying his blessed hand on her head he 
commanded the demon to depart from the girl. She 
opened her eyes, rose up and was cured. In grati- 
tude to God for her recovery, Friedeburga, though 
bethrothed to Sigibert, the eldest son of king 
Thierry, consecrated her virginity to her divine 
bridegroom and advised by St. Gall entered a con- 
vent. King Sigibert, though sadly disappointed, 
praised her choice and willingly offered her to the 
service of God. 

Abbot Strabo gives the romantic story in his life 
of St. Gall. After Friedeburga was completely re- 
stored to health, she was sent by her father to the 
court of king Sigibert at Metz, to whom she was 
betrothed. 

Preparations were made for a gorgeous wedding- 
feast, but when the fixed da}^ came, Frideburga asked 
seven daj^s respite to recover her strength. When 
Sigibert consented, she took advantage and fled to 
the church of St, Stephen, covered herself with a 
nun's veil, took hold of the corner of the altar and 
besought the first champion of the crucified to inter- 
cede for her with God that she might remain a vir- 
gin. The king was informed of this ; he took the 
bridal robe and crown which was waiting in the 
palace for his affianced and with his noblemen he 
entered the church. The princess was terrified at 
his appearance and held closer to the altar. But 

3 



26 Germany's debt to Ireland. 

the king said with a loud voice : " Be not afraid ; 
I have come here to do thy will." A priest led her 
from the altar to the king who had her arrayed 
in her bridal garment, and then placed the royal 
diadem over her veil, and after gazing a few mom- 
ents on his beautiful bride, he said to her: "Such 
as thou art here, adorned for my bridal, I yield thee 
to the bridegroom whom thou preferrest to me — to 
my Lord Jesus Christ." And taking her hand in his, 
he laid both hands on the altar giving her up to God. 
He left the church, weeping and mourning the love 
which he renounced for the sake of the Eternal 
Spouse. 

Duke Gunzo offered rich presents to the holy 
man which he declined ; he was pleased, however, 
at the letter which Gunzo sent to the prefect of 
Arbon instructing him to assist Gall in the construc- 
tion of monasteries and churches. 

Gall returned to his place of solitude, and devoted 
himself especially to building. One early morn- 
ing he called his Deacon, Maginald, and asked him 
to prepare the altar and sacred vestments, as he 
wished to say mass for the repose of the soul of 
Columbanus, who had departed from the earth during 
the night. He sent Maginald to Bobbio to inquire 
about the last moments of his master's holy life. 
Maginald returned with a letter from the monks of 
Bobbio, relating the particulars of the death of their 
abbot and founder. With this letter was sent the 
staff of Columbanus which he had bequeathed to 
Gall as a sign of forgiveness. TEis staff of Columba- 



GERMANY S DEBT TO IRELAND. 27 

nus was devoutly received and reverently preserved. 
At the time of St. Notker, in the ninth century, it 
hung over the altar of St. Gall, in the Church of the 
Monastery. St. Notker took it down one night to 
beat the devil, who appeared to him in form of a 
dog, and he used it so vigorously that it had to be 
repaired by the tinsmith. 

St. Gall wrote to the Deacon John, whose hospi- 
tality and friendship he had enjoyed at Grabs, in- 
viting him to join his zealous band. John came and 
placed himself under the guidance of St. Gall, who 
instructed him for three years in philosophy and the 
Sacred Scriptures. 

A letter came from Duke Gunzo requesting our 
Saint to attend the election of a bishop for the see of 
Constance. Gall, accompanied by his two deacons, 
John and Maginald, went to Constance, where a 
large number of prelates and priests were assembled. 
All eyes were centred on the Irish monk, and he 
was chosen to fill the vacancy. But the enthusiasm 
of clergy and people could not move him to accept 
the dignity. "All the good things you have said of 
me," he remarked, ?f apply to the Deacon John, whom 
I have brought with me and whom I now propose as 
your bishop and father, giving security that he will 
be a worthy prelate." John was elected against his 
will and immediately consecrated bishop of Con- 
stance. Gall remained w 7 ith his former pupil for 
seven days, giving him counsel and instruction for 
the government of his diocese and encouraging him 
to an apostolic life. At the bishop's first Pontifical 



28 Germany's debt to Ireland. 

Mass Gall preached the sermon, still preserved, 
which inflamed the hearts of his hearers and called 
from their lips the exclamation : " The Holy Ghost 
speaks through Gall ! " He then retired to his cher- 
ished solitude with the blessing of the new bishop. 

After some years, a deputation of six Irish monks 
came from the monastery of Luxeul, and in the name 
of their community begged him to become their 
abbot. But he who refused the mitre, now refused 
the government of the great abbey. 

Worn out with labor and years, Gall doubled his 
prayers and vigils as he felt his death approaching. 
His old friend, Father Willimar, visited him and en- 
treated him to preach at Arbon on the solemn feast 
of St. Michael. For the last time, St. Gall addressed 
the Word of God to the faithful at Arbon, Septem- 
ber 29, 640. He was seized with his final illness at 
Willimar's house, where, on the 16th of October, he 
breathed his beautiful soul into the hands of his 
Maker, being in the ninety-fifth year of his age. 

When the sad news reached Constance, Bishop 
John was filled with grief and at once hastened to 
Arbon and to the house of Willimar. The coffin of 
the dear departed was opened, and throwing himself 
on it, the heart-broken bishop exclaimed in pitiful 
accents: "O, father, my father, why doest thou 
leave me orphaned and forsaken ? " The body was 
carried to the church where Bishop John sang the 
Requiem for the soul of his beloved master. The 
funeral took place at the spot which he had selected 
to be his resting-place forever, and which bears to 



Germany's debt to Ireland. 29 

the present day the blessed name of St. Gall. 
Wonderful in life, St Gall became even more glo- 
rious after his death by the number of miracles 
wrought at his intercession and by the fruits of his 
heroic labors. M When he died," Montalembert re- 
marks," the entire country of the Alamans had become 
a Christian province, and round his cell were already 
collected the rudiments of the great monastery 
which, under the same name of St. Gall, was to be- 
come one of the most celebrated schools of Christen- 
dom, and one of the principal centres of intellectual 
life in the Germanic world." 



CHAPTER V, 



ST. SIGISBERT. 




T. SIGISBERT was one of the twelve Irish 
monks who left their native land with the 
great Columbanus, and with him were expelled 
from France. Following him to Germany, Sigisbert 
finally settled at Dissentis, in a vast solitude at the 
foot of Mount St. Gothard, where, near a fountain 
he built a cell of branches. The pagan inhabitants 
of this bleak and lonely region first admired the no- 
ble stranger and listened with pleasure to his elo- 
quent plea for the Crucified God, but when he 
attempted to cut down an oak tree which they re- 
garded as holy to their gods, one of them aimed an 
axe at his head. Sigisbert made the sign of the 
cross and disarmed his assailant. The work of 
conversion proceeded slowly. Among the converts 
was a wealthy man, St. Placidus, who suffered mar- 
tyrdom in 630. Assisted by him Sigisbert built a 
monastery, the first in German Switzerland, and still 
existing. Disciples gathered around him. At the 
outset they followed the rule of Columbanus, for 
which, however, they afterwards substituted the rule 
of St. Benedict. 

The monastery of Dissentis became the mother of 
many sainted prelates and martyr-priests. It is an 



Germany's debt to Ireland. 31 

interesting and pleasing fact for Irish Catholics that 
an Irish monk won and sanctified with his illustrious 
life and heroic works the very source of the River 
Rhine, which takes its rise near Dissentis, where the 
mountains are capped with eternal snow and the 
thundering avalanches are proclaiming the infinite 
power of that mighty God whom Sigisbert announced 
to the inhabitants. 



CHAPTER VI 



ST. TRUDPERT. 

T"l BOUT the year 640, a pious old man arrived 
1=4 in the valley which is watered by the little 
brook Neumagen, south of Freiburg, in the 
Black Forest. The venerable arrival was an Irish 
monk, who came here to rest from his long pilgri- 
mages and to prepare himself in this solitude for the 
journey to the land of eternal peace. 

This holy pilgrim was St. Trudpert, a brother of 
Bishop Rupert, of Worms, afterwards the apostle of 
Bavaria and founder of the church of Salzburg. 

No better spot, indeed, could St. Trudpert choose 
for seclusion and meditation than that lovely valley, 
surrounded by rugged mountains and clothed with 
evergreen pines and firs. The pines are the charac- 
teristic trees of the Black Forest. They are said to 
have been sown there by the hand of God. w On 
their summit God Himself treads, and through their 
branches rings the sound of which all German poetry 
is but an echo," says Bayard Taylor. Here, in 
this overpowering silence of the mighty forest, St. 
Trudpert prayed and toiled, turning the bleak wil- 
derness into a blooming valley, at the same time 
weeding from the hearts of the people vice and error 



Germany's debt to Ireland. 33 

and sowing in their souls the seed of eternal life.- 
"In day time busy like Martha, spending the night 
at the feet of his Master like Mary." (Hefele.) 

In honor of the Prince Apostle, St. Peter, at 
whose tomb he had often knelt in fervent devotion, 
he erected a chapel and cell, which, since then, have 
become celebrated throughout southern Germany. 
Six men assisted him in building and cultivating the 
soil ; they reluctantly bore his kind reprimands and 
his exhortations to labor and industry. One after- 
noon, while exhausted by toil and by the scorching 
rays of the sun, he lay on a bench under a tree resting 
his old limbs, one of these wicked servants split the 
head of his master with an axe, and thus ended the 
spotless life of the Irish missionary. His sainted 
body w T as laid at rest in his own loved chapel of St. 
Peter, which soon became the celebrated shrine for 
devout pilgrimages. A large Benedictine monastery 
was erected on the hallowed spot, bearing the name 
of St. Trudpert, whom Abbot Gerbert, in his his- 
tory of the Black Forest, truly calls the " bright star 
of the Western Schwarzwald," and his monastery, 
,f the station for Christian missionaries." A monk of 
St. Trudpert, who wrote in the twelfth century, 
says of the foundation : " Watered by the sweat of 
the holy man, sprinkled with his blood, preserved 
by his prayers, the monastery remains unto the- 
present day." 



CHAPTER VII 




ST. KILIAN AND HIS TWO COMPANIONS. 

T. KILIAN, the son of an Irish nobleman, is 
honored as the Apostle of Franconia, or north- 
ern Bavaria. According to the custom of that 
time, his pious parents sent their promising boy to 
a monastery where he would be trained in the fear 
and knowledge of God. Young Kilian grew in sanc- 
tity and learning and became a model priest and 
monk of the Benedictine Order. One day when 
meditating in his cell on those words of our blessed 
Lord, — "If any one will come after me, let him deny 
himself, take up his cross and follow me," — Kilian 
was seized with such a desire to suffer for his Mas- 
ter's cause that he resolved to become a missionary 
to a heathen nation. He left his native shore with 
eleven companions, and having safely landed in 
France, the Spirit of God directed his steps across 
the Rhine to the south of Germany. He reached 
Wurzburg, in Franconia, a charming place, sur- 
rounded by softly-sloping hills. On one of these 
hills, Kilian with his two companions, Colonat the 
priest and Totnan the deacon, planted the saving 
cross of the blessed Redeemer, from which fact the 
hill bears the name of Kreuzberg (Mount of the 
Cross) to the present day. 



Germany's debt to Ireland. 35 

The inhabitants, the ancient Franks, were given 
to war and plunder. They dressed in skins of 
animals, lived in gloomy forests and followed the 
chase. They worshipped Hulda, the goddess of hunt- 
ing, to whom they offered cruel sacrifices, even of 
human beings. And yet our Irish missionaries were 
pleased with the people and the country. Kilian's 
old biographer (who w T rote about the year 800) re- 
cords the Saint's impression : "Brethren, how beau- 
tiful is this country, how cheerful are its people ; 
and still they are in the darkness of error." The 
Saint and his companions studied the language and 
customs of the nations, and then proposed to make a 
journey to Eome, in order to obtain the sanction of 
the Vicar of Christ before entering upon the rich 
harvest which they saw before them. "If it be the 
will of God," Kilian said, "when we shall have re- 
ceived the sanction of the Apostolic See, we shall, 
under its guidance, return again to this people, and 
preach to them the name of our Lord Jesus." 

"Without delay," the old chronicler adds, "their 
deeds corresponded w 7 ith their words, and they set 
out for the threshold of St. Peter, the prince of the 
Apostles. On arriving there, the holy Pope John 
had already passed to his eternal rest ; but they w r ere 
lovingly and honorably welcomed by his successor, 
Pope Conon. And this holy pontiff, having heard 
whence and for what motive they had come, and to 
what country they were desirous to devote them- 
selves with such ardour, received their profession of 



36 Germany's debt to Ireland. 

our holy faith." After having convinced himself 
that their faith was pure and their purpose single, he 
consecrated Kilian a bishop, and then commissioned 
the three holy men "in the name of God and St. 
Peter to teach and preach the Gospel of Christ." 

They returned to Wtirzburg in the winter of 687 
and began their blessed work of conversion. Crowds 
of people flocked to them eager for the word of God, 
and before long a great number of natives received 
baptism ; among them Theobald, Duke of Fran- 
conia, to whom Kilian gave the name of Gozbert. 
Soon after, Kilian found out that Gozbert was mar- 
ried to Gailana, his sister-in-law. He went to the 
duke and fearlessly explained to him that the mar- 
riage of a Christian with his wife's sister was invalid. 
Gozbert, as if awaking from a heavy dream, an- 
swered : "Hard things thou doest preach, O, man of 
God, but I will obev thee and leave her for the sake 
of Him who gave all for me." Gozbert was about 
to proceed on a military expedition, therefore asked 
leave to defer the matter until his return. While the 
duke was gone to the war, the wicked Gailana, like 
the wife of King Herod, brooding revenge and thirst- 
ing for the blood of Bishop Kilian and his two com- 
panions, hired two barbarians to accomplish her dark 
design. 

Kilian was informed in a heavenly vision of the 
imminent martyrdom. Calling his faithful compan- 
ions, he said : w Let us prepare for the coming of the 
Lord, for he is at the door." On July 8, 689, at the 



Germany's debt to Ireland. 37 

midnight hour, while the three holy men were pray- 
ing and recommending their souls into the hands of 
their Father in heaven, the assassins rushed in upon 
them and sent their spirits to realms of everlasting 
joy. Thus died Kilian, the Apostle of Franconia, in 
defending, like St. John the Baptist, the sanctity of 
the marriage tie, and with Colonat and Totnan sealed 
the Gospel they had preached with their blood. Their 
bodies, together with their sacred vessels, missals, 
and pontifical vestments, w T ere thrown into a deep 
pit. 

When Gozbert returned from the war and inquired 
for his spiritual father, he was told that Kilian and 
his two companions had left the country, but the jus- 
tice of God soon brought the concealed murder to 
light. One of the assassins became insane, and ran 
through the streets of the city in a frenzy, crying 
out: "O, Kilian, Kilian! how horribly thou dost 
persecute me. I see the sword, red with thy blood, 
hanging over my head." He died a most revolting 
death by tearing his flesh with his teeth. The other 
assassin killed himself with his own sword. And 
she who had ordered the impious deed, the wicked 
Gailana, was continually haunted by terrible visions 
of her foul crime which drove her into incurable in- 
sanity. * 

The holy remains of the martyrs were carefully 
raised from the obscure pit and reverently laid in a 
sacred place until a century later, when Bishop Bark- 
hard gave them a permanent resting-place in the sol- 
emn crypt of his cathedral at Wurzburg. 

4 



38 Germany's debt to Ireland. 

Tertullian wrote of the martyrs in his days that 
their blood was the seed of Christians. The three 
Irish martys who sprinkled the soil of Franconia 
with their blood sowed the first seed of Christianity 
which since then has grown into a mighty tree whose 
roots have struck so deeply into the earth that the 
storms of twelve centuries have not shaken it nor 
torn off its lofty branches. 



CHAPTER VIII, 




ST. DISIBOD. 

T. DISIBOD was born in Ireland, of rich and 
pious parents, who lost their wealth through 
the relentless wrath of a tyrant. They suc- 
ceeded, however, in giving their son an excellent 
education. Disibod was ordained priest at the age 
of thirty years. His noble qualities of heart and 
mind won for him the mitre, which he wore but a 
short time, being driven from his bishopric by the 
snares and persecutions of wicked men. He left 
Ireland with three companions, Gillidad, Clement 
and Sallust. Travelling through Germany for ten 
years, he preached the word of God, converting 
many from error and vice to the way of truth and 
virtue. But longing for solitude, he took up his 
abode on a romantic elevation in the Rhenish Palati- 
nate, now known as Disibodenberg, the mount of 
St. Disibod, by whose base flow peacefully the rivers 
Glan and Nahe. He selected this wooded mountain, 
because it was difficult of access and thus separate 
from the world below. When the Saint took pos- 
session of it, he prayed : f? O God who dwellest in 
the highest and rulest the abysses, grant that the 
beauty of this place may serve for the beauty of im- 
mortal souls." 



40 Germany's debt to Ireland. 

Here he built cells for himself and his compan- 
ions, and led a life of mortification and austerity, liv- 
ing on the coarsest fare which the Solitude yielded 
them. 

The lustre of his sanctity soon shone through the 
darkness of the forest. The people from the 
neighboring country flocked to the mountain to be 
instructed and edified by the word and example of 
Disibod. 

Princes and people furnished him with the means 
for the building of a large monastery where he 
gathered about him many disciples who followed the 
strict rule of St. Benedict and vowed themselves to 
a heremitical life. 

God glorified his faithful servant on earth by the 
power of miracles. The chronicler relates that 
Disibod gave speech to a dumb man ; he cured 
a man suffering with the falling sickness and 
cleansed a leper. He possessed the gift of pro- 
phecy : he foretold the future trials of his mon- 
astery and the near approach of his death. The 
mountain, from which the traveller gains a magni- 
ficent view over the surrounding vine-clad hills and 
fertile valleys, became illustrious on accout of the 
virtues of the Saint who died here at the age of 
eighty-one years, on the 8th day of July, in the 
latter half of the seventh century, and was buried 
on the mountain. A sweet, heavenly fragrance 
lingered around the body and the grave of the saint 
for thirty day^, and many miracles nourished the 
veneration and devotion to Disibod. 



Germany's debt to Ireland. 41 

His life was written by St. Hildegard in the year 
1179, at the command of Helinger, abbot of Disi- 
bodenberg. In the century following his death his 
body was raised by St. Boniface and deposited in the 
church of the monastery. 

Though the years of his birth and of his death 
are unknown, yet the name and work of St. Disibod 
will never be forgotton in German lands where many 
altars containing particles of his precious relics are 
erected to perpetuate the pious memory of the Irish 
hermit. 



CHAPTER IX. 



ST. VIRGILIUS. 

I I "IHE sons of St. Patrick illumined the Church 
^ I 4) of Ireland not only with the splendors of their 
sanctity, but also with the brightness of their 
learning and scholarship. Among the most learned 
men of the eighth century we mention St. Virgilius, 
in Irish, Feargal or O'Farrell, who like many of his 
countrymen left his native land to work as a mis- 
sionary in a foreign country. He appeared at the 
court of France about the year 743, and was kindly 
received by Pepin, then mayor of the palace, who 
became greatly interested in the learned Irish priest, 
and recommended him to Otto, Duke of Bavaria. 
After a few years of apostolic work in Bavaria, 
Virgilius was appointed abbot of St. Peter's monas- 
tery at Salzburg. 

A discussion arose between himself and St. Boni- 
face as to the rebaptizing of persons, baptized by a 
certain priest who used ungrammatical latin. The 
case was referred to Rome and decided against Boni- 
face. 

Again, he was brought before the court of Rome 
in a controversy which revealed the depths of his 
astronomical learning. Virgilius held that the earth 
was not flat like a sheet of water, but spherical or 



Germany's debt to Ireland. 43 

ball-shaped ; he was the first who proved the exist- 
ence of antipodes or of people living under the earth. 
It appears that Boniface was ill-informed regarding 
the teaching of Virgilius, and (hat he probably 
misrepresented, though unintentionally, the case of 
the abbot of Salzburg, stating to the Holy See that 
Virgilius taught the existence of other worlds and 
other nations, yet to be saved by a Redeemer. One 
thing is certain that the disputes of these two emi- 
nent Saints were settled without injury to their dignity 
and to the respect in which they were held by their 
contemporaries. 

Virgilius was elected bishop of Salzburg, in 756, 
by Pope Stephen II. But the humble monk con- 
trived to defer his consecration for two years, hop- 
ing to finally be relieved altogether from the exalted 
position, and though exercising episcopal jurisdic- 
tion, he had his Irish companion Dobda consecrated 
as auxiliary bishop to perform the necessary episco- 
pal functions in his place. At last he gratified the 
ardent wishes of the clergy and people and took on 
himself the episcopal dignity. 

He built a Cathedral and consecrated it in honor of 
St. Peter and St. Rupert. As bishop he continued 
to observe the monastic rule, and led a most austere 
and rigorous life. He charged twelve secular priests 
with the sacred ministry at his Cathedral, whilst 
he, with a band of zealous monks, his former dis- 
ciples, travelled through his extensive dioccso, 
preaching the gospel and evangelizing the still pagan 
districts. 



44 Germany's debt to Ireland. 

In his apostolic wanderings, Virgilius, with his 
missionaries, discovered the celebrated springs of 
Gastein and reopened the famous ore-mountains of 
Salzburg, thus adding to his spiritual blessings 
many material and temporal benefits on the people 
of Salzburg. 

Virgilius died November 27, in the year 784, and 
was canonized in 1233. 



CHAPTER X. 



IRELAND BROUGHT GERMANY THE ROMAN CATH- 
OLIC FAITH. 

rNFIDEL and anti-Catholic writers have not hesi- 
tated to assert that St. Patrick established a 
Church in Ireland independent of the See of 
Peter ; and that his teaching essentially differed from 
that of the Church of Rome. As a consequence, 
they claim that the Irish missionaries who evangel- 
ized Germany held no communion with the Vicar of 
Christ, and that their doctrine was even opposed to 
the tenets of the Catholic Church. Authentic his- 
tory, however, tells of the affection and devotion of 
the early Irish Christians to the See of St. Peter, 
which their blessed apostle St. Patrick had infused 
into their hearts. 

We find in the early history of the Irish Church 
how Irish pilgrims flocked to Rome to honor the 
relics of the apostles and to pay filial reverence to 
the Vicar of Christ. Germanus the Younger, a 
contemporary of St. Patrick, visited the shrines of 
Rome and spent much time in prayer before the 
tombs of the apostles, shedding tears of joy and 
consolation, and could only satisfy his reverential 
ardor by kissing, again and again, the hallowed 
threshold of St. Peter. St. Enda, the "virginal 



46 Germany's debt to Ireland. 

saint from Arran Island," the Anthony of the Irish 
Church, received Holy Orders in the Eternal City, 
before he left Italy ; he founded a monastery in the 
vicinity of Rome and called it Loetium, i. e., monas- 
tery of heavenly joy. Whilst Enda was in Rome, 
the Pope died. The people and clergy assembled 
in St. Peter's Church to elect a successor. Enda 
was present with his two companions, Ailbe and 
Benedict. All were prostrate around the altar when 
a dove came flying through the church and alighted 
on the shoulder of Benedict. Clergy and people 
regarded this as a heavenly sign and elected him 
Pope. Nothing, however, could induce the humble 
son of St. Patrick to accept the papal dignity. Be- 
fore St. Enda left Rome, he received the blessing of 
the newly elected pontiff, and also a gift of the four 
gospels and a chasuble richly wrought in silver and 
gold. 

Several Irish saints received episcopal consecration 
from the hands of the Popes themselves. St. Car- 
thage, who sanctified the banks of the Mang with the 
purity and zeal of his apostolic life was consecrated 
in Rome. St. Laserian studied in Rome, was or- 
dained priest by Pope Gregory the Great, and con- 
secrated bishop by Pope Honorius I. 

St. Flannan, "The king of meekness," went to 
Rome on a pilgrimage, and, against his wish, w r as 
■consecrated first bishop of Killaloe, by the Sovereign 
Pontiff himself. Thus we find the early Irish bishops 
united in closest bonds with the successors of St. 
Peter. The signature of Bishop Sedulius, an Irish- 



GERMANY S DEBT TO IRELAND. 47 

man, is affixed to the decrees of a Council, held in 
Eome, in 721. In the third Lateran Council, an 
Irish bishop was interrogated as to his means of sup- 
port, and he gave the characteristic reply : ?t My 
whole sustenance depends on three milch cows, and, 
according as any one of these becomes dry, another 
is substituted by my people." 

The pilgrimages of Irish monks and bishops be- 
came so numerous and frequent that special hospices 
were erected on the Continent for the reception of 
Irish pilgrims. Such resting-places were founded 
in Cologne, Paris, Ratisbon, Vienna, etc. The 
ardor of the Irish to visit the relics of the apostles is 
characterized in history as insatiable. 

Cardinal Moran writes : rf Thus were reciprocally 
bound together the churches of Ireland and Eome : 
Rome was famed in Ireland as being the Apostolic 
See, and hence our saints went on pilgrimages to 
venerate the Vicar of Christ, and pay their vows at 
the shrines of the Apostles. Ireland, too, famed in 
Rome, her religious perfection, and sanctity and 
skill in sacred science won the admiration of the 
faithful of the Holy City ; and when their own mon- 
asteries were laid waste and their sanctuaries pillaged 
by ruthless invaders, we find them seeking a sacred 
asylum in Ireland, in whose hallowed retreat they 
might pursue undisturbed the highest paths of spir- 
itual perfection." 

We cannot conclude this chapter without translat- 
ing a description of Ireland given, in the ninth 
century by the learned German monk Ermenrich 



48 Germany's debt to Ireland, 

in his address to Grimald, abbot of St. Gall : "We 
have it from ancient authors that St. Columbanus, 
St. Gall and their companions came hither to con- 
vert the pagan barbarians to the faith of Christ. 

How could we ever forget the isle of Erin, from 
whence the sun of faith, the radiance of so great a 
light has risen for us ! Though born in a country 
towards the East, yet, we receive the light of faith 
from the far West, from the utmost bounds of the 
earth, from whence also this light has shone upon 
other nations. 

Ireland is rich, adorned with the rarest gifts of 
nature, but she excels yet more by the most extra- 
ordinary gifts of grace. There, winter is so mild 
that the snow remains upon the ground scarcely for 
three days. What nature shows in figure is realized 
spiritually in the Irish Church ; for, to her apply the 
words of Holy writ : "She shall not fear for her 
house in the cold of snow ; for all her domestics are 
clad in double garments." Her teachers are clothed 
with the mantle of the old and the new Testaments, 
equipped with pure faith and good works, filled with 
the love of God and of their neighbor, therefore, 
she shall not fear that her household perish in the 
cold of snow, which falls upon the earth through 
infidelity, heresy and schism. 

No snake nor other venemous creature can live on 
that island ; in like manner, no one can be in com- 
munion with the Irish church, who, infected with 
heresy, tries to poison others. And when such 
false prophets (teachers) come to Ireland from other 
countries to unite themselves to the church of Ire- 



Germany's debt to Ireland. 49 

land they shall be immediately destroyed by the 
breath of the doctors of faith, that is to say, they 
will either be expelled or converted ; for the Irish 
fathers of the church are like the doctrine of the 
apostle, to the one an odor of life, to the other an 
odor of death. 

In Ireland the bark of the trees and all the plants 
resist any kind of poison, just as the word of God, 
carried from there all over the world, removes the 
corruptions of Satan and pours into the wounds of 
men the balm of eternal salvation. 

Erin flows with milk and honey ; and her church 
abounds in the milk of heavenly doctrine and in the 
honey of wisdom, which she industriously prepares 
for high and low ; and as her sunny hills are crowned 
with purple vines and clustering grapes so does her 
church glitter in the blood of her martyrs. The 
countless birds, deer and goats remind us of her 
innumerable saints, who have soared to God or 
who have so excelled in prudence or strength of 
soul as to have overcome the temptations of Satan 
and escaped his snares of sin. In fact the church 
of Ireland is a faithful (true) picture of the Catholic 
Church, which, in the midst of the ocean of time, 
is assailed by the attacks of devils, exposed to the 
storms of godlessness and the persecutions of the 
wicked, but being built on the rock, Jesus Christ, 
she will endure forever. Her pilot is God, her 
rowers the apostles of Christ, and their successors, 
the bishop and abbot. Such oarsmen were St. 
Columbanus and St. Gall, who went out from that 

5 



50 Germany's debt to Ireland. 

corner of the earth and came to us, as also did 
that holy martyr of Christ, St. Boniface, who came 
from the same place to bring to our beloved ftither- 
land the light of faith. And all, who faithfully fol- 
low these blessed apostles, will be safely led into 
the haven of eternal rest." 



GERMANY'S 



DEBT TO IRELAND 



BY 

KEY. WILLIAM STANG, D.D. 



FR. PUSTET, 
Printer to the Holy See and the S. Congregation of Elites. 

FE. PUSTET & CO., 

ITe-w "^Torlc <fe Oim.cin.xia.ti- 

1889. 




BY THE SAME AUTHOR WE PUBLISHED : 

The tife of martin Luther. Compiled 
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